


Parking Spots

by noirefemmefatale



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, mentions of sokka suki zuko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 02:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3710701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirefemmefatale/pseuds/noirefemmefatale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which Katara and Toph are roommates at university and Katara's parking spot outside the dorm building is taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parking Spots

Katara slammed her bag down on the room floor to let Toph _know_ just how angry she was. The blind girl rolled over in her bed with a groan to face her longtime friend; she couldn’t see her but she knew that Katara liked it when people faced her anyway. It took about three steps for Katara to put her bag on the coat hanger that had been a going away gift from Sokka, four to put her shoes in the space saving cubby and five for her to reach Toph’s bed and flop down. It was always the same amount of steps.

“What’s wrong, Sweetness? Hot TA give you a bad grade and push back your wedding date again?”

Katara felt her face heat as she thought of the last time it had been Zuko’s, the teacher’s assistant in her Brit Lit class, to grade papers and he had obviously not understood her genius comparisons of Shakespeare to Beyoncé. “Not this time, he’s been on his best behavior since I wrote that passive aggressive paper on how the integrity of universities was going down thanks to TAs teaching more than teachers and doing a horrible job. Some asshole took MY spot outside the student house. I had to park at Whitmore and that’s a far ass walk.”

“I say we key his car,” Toph suggested.

“I already got arrested for the protests last semester, I’m not looking forward to seeing the backseat of a cruiser any time soon, thanks.”

“Fine, even though that was a totally badass way to go. We can’t just let this person take your spot and get away with it.”

“Maybe they’re a visiting parent. I’ll let it slide today just in case.” Katara stretched out beside her friend. “Do you want Thai or Chinese tonight? I found fifty dollars on the ground and I figured we’ve had enough Oodles and Noodles to last a lifetime.”

“Chinese; Thai does weird stuff to my stomach.”

Katara made a face before placing the order. Once they were full and laughing about the rest of their day, she forgot all about the fact that she’d have to wake up twenty minutes earlier than usual to get to her car.

When Katara left the dorm to walk to her car before her eleven A.M. class, the beat up Toyota was nowhere to be found. When she came back from her shift at the local grocery store at nine at night, it was there again. Not only were her feet tired from standing for hours on end, she was irritable from dealing with multiple old ladies who tried to shove cat food in their purses and act innocent when security dragged them to her line. She didn’t care if it was a parent or not, it was her spot and she was prepared to wait until they came out. That plan didn’t actually last long.

“I’m going to write a note,” she declared she walked in.

The room was empty since Toph was in a Kung Fu class that she’d recently joined; she surpassed the other students so greatly that the instructor had moved her onto the Southern Praying Mantis style even though most stopped at Hung Ga. Katara sat down at her desk and began typing. While she was printing the note, Toph came in and collapsed on her bed.

“I’m going to tape this to the window shield so the owner of that car will know that parking spot isn’t free.”

“Read it to me.”

“‘Dear owner of this car that probably doesn’t even go to this school: The spot you’ve been parking in for the past two days is mine and I paid good money for it. If you want to visit your girlfriend or boyfriend or whoever in this building, find another spot. If you’re actually a student, go to the office and buy your own damn spot. I won’t tell you which one. I hope your gas hits E while you’re looking. Sincerely, Actual Resident and Student.’”

“I like it. Go put it out there.”

Katara did exactly that before coming back inside and highlighting passages in her Biology textbook with a smug smile on her face for the rest of the night. When her spot was empty the next morning she considered leaving her car there as a safety token but decided against it. The Toyota was back at the end of the day, her note had been taped to the front door of the building with a tiny violin drawn on it. This meant war.

After a week of leaving increasingly more aggressive notes and coming home to find them mocked with the car still in her spot, Katara rounded up Toph and drove back to the grocery store. One of the managers, Suki, had listened to her complain about the spot from day one and waved her ahead when she asked to take a few shopping carts in the back of her car. When they got back to campus, Katara reminded Toph to stay quiet and began to unload.

In the middle of lining weighed down carts behind the intrusive car, Katara heard a throat clear. A boy, with an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth stood and cocked his head to the side. Katara refused to acknowledge how cute he looked there with a half smirk on his face.

“What are you doing behind my car?” he asked.

“This is your car? Go on Sweetness, let him have it.” Toph patted her friend on the back in encouragement.

“You’ve been parking in my spot for an entire week and I want it back,” Katara demanded. “You don’t even live here.”

“I do actually. I switched roommates and got stuck in this building. Your notes were funny, but I didn’t know I was making you this mad. Why don’t I take you to Starbucks or something to pay you back?” He offered and his smirk grew into a grin.

Katara hooked her arm through Toph’s. “That’d be fine. I’m the second room on your right on the first floor, knock when you get the space free to pull out of. I’m Katara by the way.”

“Jet.”

**Author's Note:**

> Saw this list of AU's on Tumblr and this one jumped out to me first. I'll most likely to do more, these are fun little writings that I'm doing while writing my multi-chapter fic, Ceremonious (shameless plug so go check it out). Jet and Katara are my otp after Zuko and Katara so I had to. Anyway, there's a whole list with links and stuff so I'll experiment with other pairings maybe. Hope you liked it, and if you want go ahead and tell me who you want to see in another AU.


End file.
